La maison du cauchemar

From director Umberto Lenzi (using the riotous Americanized pseudonym of Humphrey Humbert) comes this dopey, low grade, but engagingly dumb haunted house flick.

Things begin with a prologue of young Henrietta (Kristen Fougerousse) being chastised by her father for butchering the family cat, and then being locked in the cellar. Soon after the parents are brutally murdered. Flash forward 21 years, and HAM radio operator Paul (Greg Scott) picks up radio signals of what sounds like people being terrorized. He traces the signals to an isolated manor, meeting up with other young adults. Soon these unfortunate souls are set upon by the demonic forces residing within the walls.

A banal script (by Cinthia McGavin), truly silly dialogue (by Sheila Goldberg), lame attempts at horror, and some delicious moments of gory violence combine in this enjoyably bad movie. The acting is likewise lousy from most everybody concerned, although it's nice, as it always is, to see the great character actor Donald O'Brien (a.k.a. Dr. Butcher, M.D.) as a hilariously unsubtle, menacing axe-wielding caretaker.

The young actors *are* attractive, in any event. Lara Wendel of Dario Argento's "Tenebre" is top billed as she plays Paul's girlfriend Martha. The adult performers don't fare much better, but there are some great character faces among them: William J. Devany as a detective, Alain Smith as Henrietta's father, Robert Champagne as a mortician.

The music, by Piero Montanari, is very bad, but amusingly so, while cinematographer Franco Delli Colli works to give the movie a decent look. At least "La Casa 3" ("La Casa 1" and "La Casa 2" being the Italian titles for the first two "Evil Dead" movies) gets much mileage out of a creepy clown doll, much like "Poltergeist" did six years previous.

Filmed in the same house as Lucio Fulci's "The House by the Cemetery".

Six out of 10.

I expected a very bad b-class italian horror movie, and it is, but is enjoyable. It´s well filmed & the actors are acceptable. Music is very good, just listen to that demoniac sound that is heard from the basement (not joking, one of the best horror sounds ever heard by me). There are also some good deaths (the first two & one in the middle), the others are average. Plot is bad, but you cannot expect more. What I did not understand are the stupid reasons for entering again and again the Ghosthouse (example: a girl wants to take a shower) when those kids know that there is a killer or somewhat (I won´t tell what). Scenery is good, so the other places of the shots. Summarizing, I watched the film till the end, that hardly happen when I see this type of movies and are bad.

I could recommend it if you are a horror-movie fan, or if there is anything to watch...

Rate this movie with a 5.5 out of 10 .-

This should be in a bargain bin. I have rarely seen such idiotic characters. If they would not have died I would kill them myself for such bad acting, makes you want to punch them and kill them yourself. Especially the 3 girls, actually forget this, all characters are acting like dumb idiots with no brains and no nerves.

Besides the cast that keep screaming at everything, they don't react. None of the actors in this movie seems real. NO ONE would react like these pathetic zombies, and if they do; they deserve to die!

The movie plot is good and with good acting and directing this could be a very strong movie. The directing and acting makes this version so lame that it should be burned.

I love B movies cause there is something in them you don't get in the Hollywood big flicks; soul. This movie however has no soul, no body, not much besides the amazing story idea. I wish someone would pick it up and make a real movie with real actors. (Is is so bad that you need to really want to see the end to endure the acting, again, it is soooooooooooo bad I couldn't believe it.)

A movie to watch, painfully, just to get the story behind it, good story, destructive acting and directing.

How can you not like this movie?! Not only was it good, but it was also good! Sure the acting isn't the best and the dubbing is a little off, but that's not what made the movie what it was anyway! The nursery song is soooo creepy! And the little girl, freaks me out every time. The beginning is the best though...

Umberto Lenzi's GHOSTHOUSE opens with the gruesome, otherworldly murders of a man and his wife. This, after the man had discovered that the family cat was killed by his creepy daughter, Henrietta (Kristen Fougerousse).

Twenty years later, Paul (Greg Rhodes) and Martha (Lara Wendel) wind up in the very same house, after receiving a strange radio message. Now abandoned, Paul and Martha soon encounter others who happen to be camping on the house's grounds. Let the senseless slaughter begin.

Lenzi pulls out all the stops in this movie, unleashing a crazed hillbilly, an unconvincing head in a washing machine, exploding glass jars / bottles, a shaky camper, a devil dog, an indoor feather-storm, an acid / slime bubble bath, the grim reaper, and a goggle-eyed Henrietta and her clown doll! Said clown is a total hoot, and a better actor than any human in this film!

Preposterous and absolutely non-frightening, this is a rare treat for the true schlock connoisseur! The mindless dialogue is perfectly suited to the mannequin-like characters, who simply wander through the house until something "bad" happens. Just wait until you see the funeral home murder scene, complete with a paper towel-lined coffin! Pure platinum! Watch this immediately!

P.S.- Watch the aforementioned hillbilly, and marvel at his vast array of murder implements. He uses an ax, a meat cleaver, a pitchfork, a hammer, and a sickle!...